Peering into the future
Annual competition for young designers held in Kyiv
This year the organizers of the 11th National Competition of Young Clothing Designers entitled "Seasons of Fashion: A Look into the Future" was a hit. The guests of this annual event found themselves in a workshop of a jewelry plant, where an atmosphere of extracting and cutting new "fashion diamonds" reigned under the able direction of emcee Kuzma. The white coats of the organizers and jury members, who were wearing blue polyethylene slippers, were very apt.
Twenty-five designers from seven Ukrainian cities — Kyiv, Lubni, Zolochiv, Poltava, Zhytomyr, Yevpatoria, Lviv, Komarne, and Donetsk — took part in this year’s competition. Young designers from any Ukrainian city can take part in it, not just those who have an "in" with the organizing committee or local fashion company.
It is gratifying to note that the competition is truly effective. Neophyte designers who achieve a high level within the framework of the competition receive prizes and become part of the "Ukrainian fashion vertical," according to Iryna Danylevska, the head of the organizing committee of Ukrainian Fashion Week. In a few years from now these young designers will be full- fledged, experienced fashion creators.
This is what happened to Andre Tan, the favorite designer of Ukraine’s beau monde, and he is not the only example. Beginning in 2000, the first year of this event, "A Look into the Future" helped kick-start the careers of a group of already famous designers, like Ksenia Marchenko, Olena Oliinyk, Eduard Nasyrov, Olena Burenina and many others.
Of course, it is very important that there are people who are in a position to assess the participants’ work. This year, designers Viktor Anisimov, Olena Vorozhbyt, Oleksii Zalevsky, Tetiana Zemskova, and Iryna Karavai served on the jury. Practically all of them are members of the Experts’ Committee of the Ukrainian Fashion Council. Lilia Poustovit acted as jury head.
The numbered collections were shown non-stop. The names of the designer were announced only after the jury made its decision and presented the awards. Yulia Dolynna from Kyiv won the Grand-Prix for her intriguing collection entitled “Axiom of Personality.” Part of her prize is a one-week stint at the design studio, showroom, factory, and stores of the well-known German designer Annette Goertz. The audience favorite was Dmytro Kutiaha from Kyiv, whose quirkily-titled “Absolutely Sober Collection” won him a two-week trip to Holland to study at the Frank Mohr Institute as well as a three-month internship as a stylist in the fashion department of the magazine Fashion Seasons . His was one of three men’s collections presented at the competition.
Lviv’s Hanna Maksymchuk presented a collection based on motifs of the national costume of the Sokal area. Her designs won one of the most important prizes: the possibility to represent Ukraine at the Russian Silhouette international competition. “This year’s competition was the best. Every year the level of the contestants’ submissions is growing, and it is becoming more and more difficult to choose,” Poustovit said while awarding the prize to Maksymchuk
The difference this year was palpable. The young designers are not only focusing their attention on their creativity in an effort to impress the jury. They also have a professional approach to creating their collections.
For the final catwalk the designers accompanied their models and their mini-versions — dolls wearing scaled-down items of clothing from their collections. The dolls will later be auctioned on the Internet, and the money raised will go to fund the Audience Favorite Award for the designer whose doll is sold for the highest bid.
